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Our easy to prepare breakfast bacon and egg souffle’ is super easy to prepare and a great twist on the traditional bacon and eggs breakfast. The bacon can be cooked ahead of time. We often cook an entire package of bacon (we prefer the thick cut bacon), crumbled and stored in the freezer until needed for this and dozens of other amazing recipes.

Ingredients:

1 8 oz. can refrigerated crescent rolls

cooking spray

7 eggs

1/4 cup whipping cream (you can substitute half and half if you prefer)

2. In medium bowl, beat eggs, whipping cream and pepper with whisk until well-blended; set aside. In 10-inch skillet, heat butter over medium-high heat. Cook and stir red pepper in butter 1-2 minutes, just until tender. Pour egg mixture into skillet. With spatula, pull thin layer off bottom of skillet toward center. Repeat around pan. Continue to gather cooked portion in center of skillet until about half of the egg mixture is set (eggs will be very runny).

3. Immediately remove from heat; stir in half of the bacon and cheese. Working quickly, spoon partially set eggs into the greased muffin cups. Top with remaining bacon and cheese. Bake 17 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes; carefully remove soufflés from cups. Note: it is always a good idea to partially fill the empty cups with water before cooking the breakfast bacon souffle’.

Serves 4

This dish incorporates the toast, bacon and eggs into one simple dish. To fill the plate you can serve it with tomatoes (raw, fried or baked), baked asparagus or a cup of fresh fruit. If you love mushrooms you can add mushrooms to the mixture, just lightly saute them with the peppers and follow the recipe.

The 7th annual Terrapin Mountain 50K and half marathon will be held Saturday, March 22, 2014 in Sedalia, Virginia. Located about 25 miles northwest of Lynchburg, VA the course runs through the George Washington National Forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Many runners camp there the night before but others want a comfortable bed a warm room and if they bring their non-running spouse/friend/partner we offer a good nights sleep before a day filled with excitement and challenges. The race starts about dawn.

Runners of both the half marathon and 50K race follow trails that involve steep climbs and switchbacks that take them up the mountain, where the overall elevation change during the course of the race is about 3,250 feet. The half marathon is one loop of Terrapin Mountain while the 50K course consists of multiple loops of Terrapin Mountain. The 50K qualifies as part of the Virginia based trail race series known as the Beast Series and the Lynchburg Ultra Series. These runs are designed for serious runners that have done extensive off road training on steep grades.

While we would love to have you as a guest at The Carriage House Inn Bed and Breakfast, DO NOT try this race unless you have trained for it! If you want more information or want to register for the race click here to be connected to their website.

As you know, for the past three years, we post a recipe to our blog monthly. Many of you have asked us for our recipes and we are happy to give them to you or you can search through the blog and try to find them, but as we post more items to our blog it gets harder and harder to find specific recipes so we have just created a new page on our website that lists all of our recipes and links you to each one. They are listed by categories making it easier to find a specif recipe or a group of recipes. You will want to bookmark that page and refer to it regularly as we will be adding at least one new recipe each month. For those of you who have stayed with us, now you have access to our bed and breakfast recipes and for those of you who haven’t yet stayed, now you’ll know what you are missing.

If you are planning to visit the Lynchburg area we would live to have you as our guest. We typically can meet most dietary restrictions so let us know in advance and we will try to create something special for you. While looking through our bed and breakfast recipes, if you see something you would like to have on your next visit here let us know and we will be happy to accommodate you. Reservations can be made by calling us at 434.846.1388 or you can book your room on line.

For the past three years we have featured a chocolate waffle recipe in February and this year’s recipe is our best yet. We have cut back on the sugar and substituted a healthier olive oil for the melted butter. This year we used buttermilk over whole milk and finally we used a heart healthy chocolate that was 70% cacao. All of these changes make this a healthier alternative to our other chocolate waffles. Okay, I’m not insinuating this is health food, but it is a better option than the previous years recipes. The waffle isn’t as sweet as in years past but after you add syrup there is a great balance. We topped the chocolate waffle with a couple slices of strawberries. Unfortunately they weren’t fresh from our garden (but we will have them in the May-June time frame). For the olive olive oil, use a mild flavored oil that is not too peppery. While attending an innkeepers conference in Charleston SC in January we found The Crescent Olive company that has numerous blends of olive oil that are infused with different herbs and fruits. You need to check them out! For this recipe we used their Blood Orange Olive Oil. Chocolate and orange is a great combination!

2 cups flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup (packed) dark brown sugar

1 Tbs. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. kosher salt

3 large eggs, separated

2 cups buttermilk

Zest of one orange

1/2 cup olive oil

1 tsp. vanilla

6 oz. bittersweet chocolate (at least 70% cacao), finely chopped

Preheat oven to 250°. This will allow you to hold your cooked chocolate waffles hot so that you can serve everyone a warm waffle. Whisk flour, cocoa powder, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, chocolate and salt in a large bowl. Make sure you break up the “packed” brown sugar so there aren’t large hunks of sugar. Ideally, all wet ingredients should be at room temperature but who has the time to let everything sit out for an hour or two before you start cooking! In a separate bowl blend together the egg yolks, buttermilk, olive oil, orange zest and vanilla. Making a well in the dry ingredients gradually incorporate the wet ingredients, mixing just until combined. DO NOT OVER MIX. In this case, less mixing is better! If you want to get a head start on breakfast you can do this much the night before, just cover and chill (you will still need to add the egg whites the following morning).

Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat egg whites in a small bowl until soft peaks form. Working in 2 batches, fold egg whites into batter just until combined.

Heat a waffle iron until very hot; lightly coat with nonstick spray. Don’t forget this step otherwise you will be picking pieces of waffle out of your waffle iron–no fun. Working in batches, cook waffles until cooked through. Transfer to a wire rack set inside a baking sheet, cover loosely with foil and keep warm in oven until ready to serve.

Serve with butter and syrup or strawberry sauce. We served this February 2014 breakfast with a homemade strawberry sauce and sliced strawberries. You could dust this with confectioners sugar an/or put a dollop of whip creme on the waffle if you really want to indulge.

Of course I love the dark side of breakfast! Chocolate waffles are great!

I like to think of chocolate as the dark side of breakfast! I know, I will use any excuse to add chocolate to any meal but in this case, these chocolate waffles rock! If you wanted to make one more tweak to make them healthier use one cup all-purpose flour and one cup whole wheat flour. Okay, I lied, one more tweak, add 1/4 cup chia seeds to dry ingredients. You won’t see them because they blend in with the chocolate, but they will give you a whole grain,fiber and antioxidants!

We hope you enjoy this recipe. We have fun at The Carriage House Inn Bed and Breakfast creating our breakfasts and playing with different recipes. Many of our followers wait for our monthly recipe to appear on our blog which is then transmitted to our Facebook and Google+ page. If you haven’t Liked or +1 our page yet, please do so as we have some great surprises in store for you. Also, check back next week for a new page created for anyone who loves food!

Heads up! This year is the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion and there will be many great programs at the D-Day Memorial the week of June 6. Don’t wait until the last moment, book your rooms for the event now! Also, this year is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Lynchburg (June 17-18). If you are a Civil War buff you will want to come to these festivities to hear about this little known battle. Again, rooms will book up so call now and book your room. Finally, next year will the the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War (April 9-12) when General Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse (about 20 minutes from here). They are expecting over 7,000 visitors from around the world to visit that week. It is NOT too early to make your reservations. Call us at 434-846-1388 or book your room on-line.

Recently we toured Anne Spenser’s home and garden located at 1313 Pierce Street in Lynchburg. Our tour guide was Shaun Spencer-Hester, the granddaughter of Anne Spencer and daughter of Chauncey Spenser, one of the Tuskegee Airmen. Walking through the home was like stepping back in time. There were photos, letters scattered around the home. The “phone booth” in the home has names and phone numbers scribbled on the walls. The furnishings belonged to Anne and Edward and you got the sense that they would be coming back from the store any moment. There were invoices and cancelled checks sitting on the desk and Anne Spenser’s cookbook was on the kitchen table. You could tell that these were real people and this was their home. All too often house museums have been “sterilized” with the removal of many personal items, but not in this case. All too often it is easy to clean house and throw things away, fortunately the family keep all these treasures so that we can now enjoy those traces of the past. The attic hosts a train set and it is easy to visualize Anne’s grandchildren playing in the attic and listening to records on the old record player.

Child’s record player

We heard stories of how Edward, Anne’s husband built the home and how he recycled many items by using them in the home. Edward was a parcel post carrier (mail man) who also raised chickens so it wasn’t unusual for him to deliver your mail as well as some freshly laid eggs. Edward was a man of many talents who not only built his home, but several others, built Anne’s private writing retreat, Edankraal , in the garden. The name Edankraal was derived from Edward, Anne and kraal, the Afrikaans word for corral or homeplace.

Anne Spencer’s Kitchen

Anne Spencer (1882-1975) was an internationally acclaimed poet during the Harlem Renaissance period of the 1920’s and she continued her writings throughout her life. Because of the historical significance of her body of work, it was turned over to the University of Virginia to be catalogued and preserved for future generations. When Anne wasn’t writing, teaching, raising children you could often find her in her garden behind the house which served as a place of inspiration for her writings. Today many of Ann’s bulbs, peonies roses and shrubs still survive and offer visitors a burst of color when visiting the garden. Today,Lynchburg’s Hillside Garden Club has adopted the garden and is responsible for maintaining it.

Anne Spencer’s private retreat, Edankraal.

The gardens are open to the public November-March , but the home is only open on special days or by appointment. This private museum is a must see. To schedule a tour please call the museum at 434-845-1313. Admission prices $5.00 for seniors and $10.00 for adults. Of course donations are always welcome. If you will be staying with us while in Lynchburg and are interested in touring this home (we highly recommend it) let us know when you make your reservation and we will call to set up your tour. Ideally, two weeks notice would be appreciated.

A poem by Anne Spencer about her garden:

This small garden is half my worldI am nothing to it-when all is said,I plant the thorn and kiss the rose,But they will grow when I am dead.

Valentine’s Day is just 10 days away and the search for someone special or something special for your special someone can sometimes be challenging. Today, finding that special person to share your life with is much easier with technology. There are many dating sites where both men and women put in their ideas about the perfect match and before you know it, you have a list of prospects, but what did we do before computers? Many of us found our special person by chance, others were introduced by friends and others resorted to the media. Newspapers and magazines publish “personal” ads whereby the readers can respond to someones request. These personal ads have been around for quite some time. During the Civil War two such ads (with poems) ran in Lynchburg’s Daily Virginian,

February 19, 1863

Wife wanted-I am anxious to marry-have sufficiency to take care of a wife–have been in service for eighteen months, but am now exempt for the war, have heretofore surrendered to no Arms, but am now willing to surrender to a Woman’s.

“Husband Wanted. A Lady of Lynchburg who is tired of living in maiden style and would be willing to become ‘Boss’ proposes the ‘Volunteer’ will come up and make himself known. He must be tall, handsome, good, intelligent, rich and elegant, otherwise he might as well stay where he is, as there are any number of that sort here already.-

She will make a gentle wife,Will share the joys of life,Is beautiful – not crossWill take the pants and Will be the Boss,He must give her all she wantsNot use her ill – or harass with taunts.Must love her as a good man should,She will love him, as only a woman could.”

If you are looking for a special getaway with that special person we invite you to stay at The Carriage House Inn Bed and Breakfast in Lynchburg. Like the above ads/poems this home was built in the same era and you can enjoy your our grand mansion or carriage house which is elegantly restored having many of the original elements of the home when it was built. To make your celebration even more special, we will include a chilled bottle of Prosecco, when you mention this blog post when making your reservation. In February we will be making our famous Chocolate Waffles. This is the third year for our chocolate waffles and this year’s recipe (look for it in a later post this month) promises to be the best yet!

Kathy and I wish all you you a Happy Valentine’s Day and wish this day be filled with joy and happiness.